Freemasons of New York State in the Civil War

Alanson Tilden, son of Ithiel and Susan (Bostwick) Tilden, was born in Verona, NY, July 29, 1828.

East Smithfield, Smithfield Township, Bradford County, PA.

Rev. Alanson Tilden became pastor of the church in Nov 1878, and 1 Jan 1880, was elected superintendent of the Sunday school. Pastor Tilden’s interest in the school and in its work was second to none; not only in superintending, but in teaching a class of young men, for which he is especially fitted. He missed no opportunity of seeking to advance its interests. In 1880 he commenced to raise money to buy a library. The first sociable was held at his house and netted $10. Sociables were held at other places. When $50 was raised, he proposed an entertainment in the church, with recitations, music and tableaux, which netted $40. Money was raised in other ways until May 1882, having in hand $115 he went to New York and purchased 208 volumes. To purchase a library case, an ice cream social was held at George West’s, which netted $26. A vote was passed that the collections taken on the first Sunday in the month should constitute a library fund for repairs and additions, which has prevailed to this day. Amos T. Allen, Mrs. Emma Wood, and N. L. Bird were made a permanent committee to have charge of the library repairs and the purchase of new books when the fund reached $10, if it seemed advisable. The thoughtful care of the successive librarians and the committee has been so great that up to date only one book has been lost. Pastor Tilden contributed several volumes from his library, and we felt we had one of which we might justly feel proud. In 1882, during Pastor Tilden’s superintendency, the school reached its highest point in numbers. Scholars enrolled, 241, with an average attendance of 100 during the year. For several weeks during the summer the attendance was 135, and one Sunday it was 150, the highest number ever reached. Number of scholars over eighteen, 129; number heads of families, forty-three; number male scholars, sixty-one; number of females, 121; officers and teachers, fourteen; membership of church, 209.
Tilford, G. W., (1st Lieut.) 9th Iowa Cavalry, Silentia, 198
Tilton, Luther, 14th Artillery, Sandy Creek, 564

Lodge Master, 1887-88.

TILTON, LUTHER.— Age, 19 years. Enlisted, October 21, 1863, at Watertown; mustered in as private, Co. G, December 17, 1863, to serve three years; mustered out with company, August 26, 1865, at Washington, D. C.
Titus, Joseph H., U. S. Gunboat "Galatea", Poughkeepsie, 266

USS Galatea (1862) was a large steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as an escort gunboat in support of the Union Navy, mostly in various parts of the Caribbean Sea, such as in Haiti, where her role was to protect American citizens. She was sold to the Haitian government in 1865 after becoming unseaworthy because of leaks.

Cape Haitien, April 23, 1864.

ADMIRAL! On my last convoy I found this vessel leaking considerably (from 12 to 18 inches per hour) and the leak constantly increasing. On my return to this port an examination of the scams above the copper has proved them all open. I have had a sheet of copper removed and find the seams worse under the copper than above it. I therefore do not feel justified in taking this ship to sea without applying for a survey, as in case of heavy weather I fear by the working of the ship I shall take in too much water.
I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN GUEST,

Todd, Wm., 125th Regt. Vols, New Hope, 730

.Tomlinson, Wm., (Corpl.) 1st Ohio Light Artillery, Union, 95
Tompkins, Moses J., x, Cyrus, 208

There was a Moses Tompkins in the Civil War, as shown below, but there is no apparent connection between him and Cyrus Lodge or New York City at this time.

See also http://www.bpmlegal.com/76NY/76tompkinsm.html - Civil War Letters.

Warren Barker Tompkins was born 15 February 1840, son of Benjamin Franklin Tompkins and Eliza Forbes. Warren enlisted from Scipioville as a sergeant in Company E, New York 75th Infantry Regiment on 17 September 1861. He was promoted to full 1st sergeant on 17 December 1862 and mustered out at New Orleans, LA on 23 July 1863. Records list him as having been wounded.

Warren survived to marry (1st) Mary A. Watkins 14 November 1865. Their daughter, Mary Esther Tompkins married Arthur A. Rorapaugh. Warren married (2nd) Helen Maria Post, and they had two daughters: Sarah Church Tompkins and Bessie Frank Tompkins. Bessie married Hobart Duane Loyster, a prominent Scipio farmer who lived on the north side of Manchester Road, west of Cork Street.

Warren Barker Tompkins died 1 February 1920 at his home on Chapel Street in Union Springs, Springport, Cayuga Co., NY. At the time of his death, he was the oldest member of the Scipio Lodge, F. & A. M. at Scipio Center. He is buried in Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Union Springs.

Prisoner from October 27, 1864, to February 16, 1865 - promoted from Sergeant to Sergeant Major on February 7, 1864 to 1st Lt. on March 29, 1865 - commissioned Captain on June 1, 1865 - not mustered - mustered out with company on June 23, 1865.

Tousley, F. M., 147th Vols, Greenbush, 337

Tower, Abm. W., 50th Vols, Commonwealth, 409

Townsend, W. V., x, Somerset, 639

Lodge Master, 1897-98.

Tracy, Benjamin Franklin

b. 26 Apr 1830, Owego, NY

Tracy was noted for his role in the creation of the "New Navy", a major reform of the service, which had fallen into obsolescence after the Civil War. Like President Harrison, he supported a naval strategy focused more on offense, rather than on coastal defense and commerce raiding. A major ally in this effort was naval theorist Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, who had served as a professor at the new Naval War College (founded 1884). In 1890, Mahan published his major work, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783—a book that achieved an international readership. Drawing on historical examples, Mahan supported the construction of a "blue-water Navy" that could do battle on the high seas.

Tracy also supported the construction of modern warships. On June 30, 1890, Congress passed the Navy Bill, a measure which authorized the construction of three battleships. The first three were later named USS Indiana (BB-1), Massachusetts (BB-2), and Oregon (BB-3). The battleship Iowa (BB-4) was authorized two years later.

After leaving the Navy Department, Tracy again took up his legal practice. In 1896, he defended New York City Police Commissioner Andrew Parker against Commission President Theodore Roosevelt's accusations of negligence and incompetence, in a performance that significantly embarrassed Roosevelt. (ref. Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, p.555) He also helped negotiate a settlement to the boundary dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain.

In 1897, Tracy was the regular Republican candidate to be the first Mayor of Greater New York City when her five boroughs consolidated in 1898. He came third behind Robert A. Van Wyck (Democratic) and Seth Low of the Citzens’ Union (but well ahead of Henry George's posthumous independent candidacy), winning 101,863 of the 523,560 votes cast in the election of 1897.

Tracy died at his farm in Tioga County, New York in 1915.

Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General, Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient, Presidential Cabinet Secretary. A prominent member of the New York Bar, he was commissioned as Colonel and commander of the 109th New York Volunteer Infantry on August 27, 1862. For a large part of the unit’s service, it was held out of the conflict, spending over a year and a half guarding first Annapolis, then the vital railroad junction in Laurel, Maryland that led to Washington, DC. In March 1864 the 109th NY was transferred to the Union Army’s IX Corps, then operating in Virginia. Colonel Tracy led the regiment in the early part of General U.S. Grant’s 1864 Overland Campaign, participating the bloody and brutal fighting in the Battles of the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. At the Wilderness, on May 6, 1864, he took charge of his battle line after it had broken under Confederate pressure, grabbed his regiment’s flag, and rallied his and other men, which eventually stabilizing the Union’s position. For this bravery he was awarded the CMOH on June 21, 1895, 31 years later.

On May 20, 1864 he resigned his commission with the 109th New York to become Colonel and commander of the 127th United States Colored Troops. Soon after, In September 1864, he was named commander of the Union Prison in Elmira, New York, replacing Colonel Seth Eastman. The prison then and now had a well-earned reputation for being a severely brutal place (its nickname as “Hellmira” still endures). During his tenure as commandant, Colonel Tracy was concerned for the welfare of the prisoners, but was unable to effectively fight the government bureaucracy to improve the conditions there.

He was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers on March 13, 1865 for “gallant and meritorious services during the war”. After the end of the conflict he became a highly successful attorney, holding several Federal posts, and was the defense lawyer for preacher Henry Ward Beecher when he was involved in the then-sensational adultery lawsuit filed against him by Theodore Tilton. He was appointed as the United States Secretary of the Navy during the administration of President Benjamin H. Harrison, serving from 1889 to 1893. During his tenure in office he instituted a number of major modernizing Naval reforms that resulted in changing the fundamental role of the Navy from one of defense and protection of merchant vessels to one of strong offensive involving modern fleets. He oversaw the construction of the United States’ first world–class capital ships (exemplified by the doomed USS Maine, which he personally launched in 1889), and the reorganizing and restructuring of the Navy into powerful, well equipped fighting force. His efforts while Naval Secretary born fruit in the late 1890s and early 1900s, when the US Navy crushed the forces of Spain in the Spanish-American War, and when the presence of American sea power contributing greatly to American prestige in the early 1900s. His last years were spent in New York City, where he died in 1915. His Medal of Honor citation reads “Seized the colors and led the regiment when other regiments had retired and then reformed his line and held it”.

He was one of two 109th New York soldiers to be awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery during the war, the other being Colonel and Bvt. Brigadier General Isaac S. Catlin (Benjamin F. Tracy’s brother-in-law), who assumed command of the regiment when Colonel Tracy left to lead the Colored Troops.

In 1973 historian Benjamin F. Cooling published a biography of General Tracy titled “Benjamin F. Tracy: Father of the Modern American Fighting Navy”. (bio by: Russ Dodge)

Published: August 7, 1915